Today’s Market Recap: Nvidia’s Record Q1 Earnings Meet SpaceX’s Historic $1.5T IPO Filing

A list of outcome documents from the meeting between the two heads of state during Russian President Vladimir Putin's visit to China has been released. During President Putin's visit, the two leaders signed and issued the Joint Statement of the People's Republic of China and the Russian Federation on Further Strengthening the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership of Coordination and Deepening Neighborhood Friendly Cooperation. Additionally, both sides jointly released the Joint Statement of the People's Republic of China and the Russian Federation on Promoting World Multipolarity and a New Type of International Relations.

Donald Trump stated that negotiations between the U.S. and Iran are in their "final stages," causing Brent crude to plunge over 7% intraday, overriding a record-breaking drop in U.S. inventories. Reports of some oil tankers successfully passing through the Strait of Hormuz further fueled the decline. Earlier, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported that crude inventories plummeted by 17.8 million barrels last week, significantly exceeding market expectations. This, combined with U.S. crude exports hitting historic highs, had temporarily triggered supply anxieties. Following the release of the EIA data, crude prices briefly pared losses, narrowing the intraday drop to under 3.5%.

Iran announced it will proceed with negotiations despite its "deep mistrust of the United States," with fresh talks between the two nations reportedly scheduled after the Hajj pilgrimage season in May. According to Saudi sources, Iran and the U.S. will hold a new round of talks in Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan, following the conclusion of the Islamic Hajj season at the end of May. Meanwhile, Iran's Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated it is collaborating with Oman to establish a long-term security mechanism for the Strait of Hormuz.

The Federal Reserve released hawkish meeting minutes, revealing that a majority of officials support raising interest rates if inflation remains stubbornly high, while several lean toward removing references to an easing bias. The minutes from the late April meeting showed that participants generally believed interest rates might need to remain unchanged longer than previously anticipated due to persistent inflation and uncertainties surrounding the Middle East conflict. "Many" officials expressed a preference to eliminate language in the post-meeting statement that hinted at a future monetary easing bias; however, they did not form a majority, and the statement ultimately remained unchanged. Some noted that rate cuts would be appropriate if inflation falls steadily or if the labor market weakens significantly. Meanwhile, a "vast majority" viewed the risk of inflation taking longer than expected to hit the Fed's target as having increased, and "most" saw employment risks as skewed to the downside. According to reports, central bank officials have shelved discussions on rate cuts and began more seriously weighing rate hikes during the April meeting.

Nvidia reported a first-quarter revenue surge of 85%, beating expectations, alongside record-high forward guidance that still fell short of the market's loftiest hopes, while adding an $80 billion stock buyback program and a substantial dividend hike. Nvidia's Q1 revenue marked its fastest year-over-year growth rate in over a year. Data center revenue jumped 92% year-over-year and 21% sequentially from its previous record, though its compute revenue came in below expectations. Earnings per share (EPS) more than doubled year-over-year, and the gross margin dipped slightly on a sequential basis to 75%, which was marginally ahead of estimates. The Q2 revenue guidance topped consensus estimates but missed the most optimistic market forecasts, and it excludes data center compute revenue from China. Additionally, the quarterly dividend was raised 24-fold to $0.25 per share. Nvidia also announced a transition to a new financial reporting framework split into two core platforms: Data Center and Edge Computing. Shares reversed lower in after-hours trading, dropping over 3% at one point.

Samsung Electronics temporarily averted a looming strike crisis by reaching a preliminary agreement with its labor union at the eleventh hour following urgent government mediation. Under the new deal, employees will receive a 6.2% wage increase, and the semiconductor division's bonuses will be provisioned at 10.5% based on performance, distributed in the form of after-tax stock. The agreement also introduces a long-term special performance incentive scheme anchored to annual profit targets: from 2026 to 2028, the target annual profit is set at 200 trillion Korean won (approximately $133 billion), which will then adjust to 100 trillion won for the period spanning 2029 to 2035.

SpaceX has officially initiated its IPO process by filing its prospectus, which reveals a valuation exceeding $1.5 trillion. The company's flagship Starlink business has reached 10 million subscribers, generating over $11 billion in annual revenue. The company plans to deploy an orbital AI computing satellite constellation by 2028 and establish foundational infrastructure on the Moon and Mars. Furthermore, Elon Musk's equity incentive package is structurally tied to the ultimate goal of establishing a colony of one million residents on Mars.

Anthropic is poised to achieve its first profitable quarter as current-quarter revenue doubled to reach $10.9 billion. The AI startup posted $4.8 billion in sales for the first quarter. Its current quarterly growth trajectory has outpaced the expansion rates seen by Zoom during the pandemic, as well as Google and Facebook ahead of their respective initial public offerings. Anthropic projects an operating profit of $559 million for the quarter ending in June.

Meta Platforms (META) is executing large-scale layoffs, with CEO Mark Zuckerberg acknowledging that artificial intelligence is actively "learning" from employees and progressively replacing them. During an internal meeting prior to the layoffs, Zuckerberg explicitly informed staff that the company is tracking device usage behaviors so that AI can observe their workflows and learn "how truly smart people use computers."

The chart below lists the ten most actively traded stocks in the market last Friday. Bolstered by massive trading volume and exceptional liquidity, these assets have become key benchmarks for tracking global market dynamics.